11000 Series plug-in interface

Interface Properties

Mechanical

The Tektronix 11000 Series plug-in interface is mechanically almost identical to the 7000 Series plug-in interface. The only mechanical difference is at the top of the connector. The 11000 Series has a protruding narrow horn where the 7000 Series plug-ins have a wider horn at the top of the connector with four holes for extra electrical contacts (only known use is the 7A21N direct deflection plate access plug-in).

Electrical Similarity to 7000-Series Plug-in Interface

The Tektronix 11000 Series plug-in interface is electrically partially the same as the 7000 Series interface. The power pins are the same, and the signal out pins are the same. 7000-series vertical plug-ins provide a single trigger feed to the mainframe on pins A13/B13 (differential). 11000-series vertical plug-ins provide a trigger feed on pins A13/B13, and additionally provide trigger signals on B37/B38 and B35/B36.

Note that despite this similarity, there are plenty of other issues − John Addis warns that converting 7k plug-ins to work in the 11k series or vice versa "is not even close to being worth the effort".

The RIGHT Slot on 11300 Scopes

In the 11300, the right plug-in slot is special. It is, in some sense, a horizontal plug-in slot. A small caveat regarding 11300 nomenclature: In most places, the slots are referred to as "LEFT", "CENTER", and "RIGHT". However, in some internal documents, the slots are referred to as "LEFT", "RIGHT", and "AUX". One example of this potential confusion can be seen in the 11301 SDI signal wiring schematic, where names of the wires on the left side of the schematic (i.e., pin names on the SDI chip) don't agree with the names of the wires on the right side of the schematic (i.e., the interface board pin names). This could cause confusion since "RIGHT" sometimes refers to the middle slot and sometimes refers to the rightmost slot. But the public documentation (and user interface) are consistent: the slots are called "LEFT", "CENTER", and "RIGHT".

The RIGHT plug-in slot in 11300 scopes is funtionally a horizontal slot in the following ways:

• The main signal output (pins 11A/11B) from the plug-in in the right plug-in slot cannot be routed to the vertical deflection plates of the CRT.
• The main signal output (pins 11A/11B) from the plug-in in the right plug-in slot can be routed to the horizontal deflection plates.
• The trigger output signals from the LEFT and CENTER plug-ins are routed to the RIGHT plug-in. This can be seen in the 11301 Interface Board schematic, an excerpt of which is here: Trigger signal feeds from LEFT and CENTER 11301 plug-ins to RIGHT plug-in.

So in some sense, the right plug-in slot of 11300 mainframes is a horizontal slot. But Tektronix did not sell any general-purpose timebase plug-ins for the 11000 Series, so it's not clear what they expected people to do with the rightmost plug-in slot.

As a matter of trivia, if one were to call the 11300's RIGHT slot a "horizontal" slot, then the 11300-series scopes might be the only Tek scopes that offer a timebase as a built-in part of the mainframe and also an easily swappable module (i.e., a plug-in).

The RIGHT Slot on 11400 and DSA600 Scopes

In 11400 and DSA600 scopes, the trigger output from the LEFT and CENTER plug-ins are routed to the RIGHT plug-in's auxiliary trigger inputs. They are the same as the 11300 scopes in this regard. However, 11400 and DSA600 scopes have a three-input channel switch, in contrast to the 11300's two-input channel switch. Therefore, 11400 and DSA600 scopes can use the signal output from any of the three plug-in compartments as input to the digitizer, and as the vertical signal.

Digital Communication Between the 11000-Series Plug-in and the 11000-Series Mainframe

11000-series plug-ins do not implement the 7000-series readout interface. The pins that are used for readout in the 7000-series are not used in the 11000 Series.

In the 11000 Series architecture, the mainframe communicates with the plug-in over a serial digital link called Serial Digital Interface (SDI). SDI uses pins A20, A21, and B21 on the plug-in connector. Those pins were not used on vertical plugins in the 7000-series interface.

Calibration Voltage

11000-series scopes introduced a much more extensive self-checking and self-calibration than the 7000 Series. Part of the self-calibration routine involves the 11000-series mainframe sending a calibration voltage to plug-in via pins B35/B36. Those pins were not used in the 7000-series interface.

11k Detector

The 11000-series interface uses pin B20 as an "11k Detector". 11000-series plug-ins have a pull-up resistor on pin B20. 7000-series (vertical) plug-ins left pin B20 unconnected.

Pictures

• 

  11000 Series connector

• 

  11000 Series pinout

• 

  7000 Series connector, for comparison

• 

  7k connector (7A13) on the left, 11k connector (11A32) on the right

Pinout

Horizontal Compartments A side B side Pin Function Function 1 n.c. n.c. 2 Ground n.c. 3 n.c. n.c. 4 Line Trigger n.c. 5 Sequence clock n.c. 6 Ground Sequence Sync 7 n.c. Mainframe Channel Switch 8 +5 V n.c. 9 +5.1 V n.c. 10 +5.1 V Shield (n.c. in mainframe) 11 +Vertical −Vertical 12 Signal Ground Signal Ground 13 +Trigger −Trigger 14 Ground +5.1 V 15 n.p. n.p. 16 Mainframe mode info n.c. 17 Aux Z Axis Ground 18 +15 V −15 V 19 +50 V −50 V 20 SDI data MF→PI  11k detector 21 SDI clock SDI data PI→MF  22 Shield (n.c. in mainframe) Ground 23 n.p. n.p. 24 n.p. n.p. 25 n.p. n.p. 26 n.p. n.p. 27 n.p. n.p. 28 n.p. n.p. 29 −5 V n.c. 30 −5 V n.c. 31 −CH4 Aux Trig out Ground 32 +CH4 Aux Trig out Ground 33 Ground −CH3 Aux Trig out 34 Ground +CH3 Aux Trig out 35 −CH2 Aux Trig out Cal GND sense 36 +CH2 Aux Trig out Cal voltage 37 Ground −CH1 Aux Trig out 38 Ground +CH1 Aux Trig out

Auxiliary Compartment A side B side Pin Function Function 1 Sweep Gate n.c. 2 Ground n.c. 3 n.c. n.c. 4 Line Trigger n.c. 5 Sequence clock Sample clock 6 Ground Sequence Sync 7 n.c. Mainframe Channel Switch 8 +5 V n.c. 9 +5.1 V Load Stop 10 +5.1 V Shield (n.c. in mainframe) 11 +Vertical −Vertical 12 Signal Ground Signal Ground 13 +Trigger −Trigger 14 Ground +5.1 V 15 n.p. n.p. 16 Mainframe mode info n.c. 17 Aux Z Axis Ground 18 +15 V −15 V 19 +50 V −50 V 20 SDI data MF→PI  11k detector 21 SDI clock SDI data PI→MF  22 Shield (n.c. in mainframe) Ground 23 +L CH2 Aux Trig in Ground 24 −L CH2 Aux Trig in Ground 25 Ground −R CH2 Aux Trig in 26 Ground +R CH2 Aux Trig in 27 +L CH4 Aux Trig in Shield (n.c. in mainframe) 28 −L CH4 Aux Trig in Ground 29 −5 V −R CH1 Aux Trig in 30 −5 V +R CH1 Aux Trig in 31 −L CH1 Aux Trig in Ground 32 +L CH1 Aux Trig in Ground 33 Ground −R CH4 Aux Trig in 34 Ground +R CH4 Aux Trig in 35 −L CH3 Aux Trig in Cal GND sense 36 +L CH3 Aux Trig out Cal voltage 37 Ground +R CH3 Aux Trig in 38 Ground −R CH3 Aux Trig in

Pin group function legend

DC power & ground

Digital plug-in control

Deflection and Trigger Signals

Control Signals

Links

• 11000-Series Plug-in to Main Frame Interface Manual